Graham Rice's New Plants Blog

Editor-in-Chief of the RHS Encyclopedia of Perennials; writer for a wide range of newspapers and magazines including The Garden and The Plantsman; member of the RHS Herbaceous Plant Committee and Floral Trials Committee; author of many books on plants and gardens.

Gardeners enjoying the wave of enthusiasm for the Royal baby can now buy the first plant named for the baby prince. This beautiful white clematis is named ‘Prince George’ and is not only prolific and long flowering but also one of those varieties which is especially easy to prune. And it will be in bloom...
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The National Plant Show is rapidly establishing itself as the place to look for new varieties, but this is a trade show and we usually have to wait for the winners of the New Plant Awards to become available to gardeners like us. Not this year, this year three of the winners are already available, including...
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On the Monday afternoon of the Chelsea Flower Show, this year’s award for the best new plant at the show, the Chelsea Plant of The Year, was announced – Mahonia ‘Soft Caress’ (above, click to enlarge). The runners-up were Clematis 'Lemon Dream' and Tropaeolum 'Fruit Salad'. I wrote about...
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New clematis often feature on this blog, but rarely is one quite as different as this. ‘Sweet Summer Love’ is the first fragrant clematis with large colourful flowers. There are a few fragrant clematis already, C. flammula and the related C . x aromatica , come to mind, but ‘Sweet Summer Love’ not only...
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Back in April I highlighted one of this year’s new clematis introductions from Raymond Evison , Alaina (‘Evipo 056'), this time I’m taking a look at the other two. The Countess of Wessex™ (‘Evipo073’) (above, click to enlarge) was chosen as the variety to carry her name by Her Royal Highness herself...
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For some years, clematis wizard Raymond Evison has been developing a series of varieties that are much more suitable for small town gardens than most clematis. It’s not true that all clematis will take over your garden, but some will and many gardeners tend to think that in a small space it’s just too...
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The new edition of the RHS PlantFinder will be out very soon and this year the most useful plant reference book of them all includes some very appealing new introductions. Here’s a quick look at the most popular of the new plants appearing in the RHS Plantfinder for the first time this year, these four...
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There’s an increasing range of new clematis appearing on the market these days and this latest variety sets itself apart from more familiar and traditional, large-flowered types. Princess Kate (‘Zoprika’) is a Texensis Group clematis reaching about 10-13ft/3-4m in height and flowering from June to September...
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Every year Thorncroft Clematis introduce new varieties and this year two of them are a little different from the usual run of large-flowered varieties. Both were seen first at this year's Chelsea Flower Show but with so many new plants launched this year, they may have got lost in the rush. Each...
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Yes, ‘Celebration’ is the first large flowered clematis with golden yellow leaves. As you can see from the picture (click to enlarge), the leaves really are bright yellow. What’s more the edges of the leaves are lined in red and the stems are red too. So the plant looks amazing even before flowering...
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Four of the most impressive new plants at this year’s Hampton Court Palace Flower Show are the four new clematis raised by Raymond Evison . In my coverage of the plants at the Show I mentioned two of them in my choice of ten new flowering plants and one of those featured in my new plants video interview...
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Every year the world’s leading clematis breeder Raymond Evison releases more new varieties and two of them are amongst the new entries in the 2010 PlantFinder which are listed by the most nurseries – seven nurseries are listing both Clematis Shimmer ('Evipo028') and Clematis Reflections (‘Evipo035...
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Clematis ‘Jackmanii' is perhaps the most famous clematis of all. It's that more or less indestructible, very prolific, vivid purple variety (usually with just four petals) that flowers in summer and autumn and which you can easily prune simply by cutting it back hard every spring. Now, we have...
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Getting clematis ready for the Chelsea Flower Show can be tricky. The later flowering types in particular can be hard to encourage into flower in May and of course at the same time there's also the need to keep the early ones at their peak. Thorncroft Clematis had earmarked a number of newcomers...
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Another Gold Medal for Raymond Evison's clematis here at the Chelsea Flower Show- "the best stand we've ever done," he told me - and four excellent new varieties. I wrote about ‘Diana's Delight' before the show and of the other three Fleuri (‘Evipo0421') stood out for me...
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This year Thorncroft Clematis Nursery in Norfolk celebrates twenty years of clematis sales to gardeners. To mark the occasion, at the Chelsea Flower Show next week (stand F6 in the Great Pavilion) they're launching a splendid new variety named for one of the founders of the nursery. ‘Geoffrey Tolver'...
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Clematis is our most popular climber but many gardeners are put off growing more than one because they fear their garden will disappear under a vast mass of growth. World renowned clematis breeder Raymond Evison has solved that problem with his series of prolific and long flowering but less vigorous...
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Many of the Chelsea exhibitors will have new plants on display this year, but what does "new" actually mean? There are three main types of "new" Chelsea plants. 1. Plants which have never have been seen on display anywhere in the country - or perhaps anywhere in the world - before...
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This is not the only place I'm writing about new plants. Last month I wrote a piece for the Daily Telegraph about the top ten new perennials this spring. You can read it here . And over the last year I’ve been posting on new plants over on my Transatlantic Plantsman blog. You can find them all here...
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Have you got your copy yet? Don't make do with last year's Plant Finder. Apart from anything else there are over four thousand new plants included this year - 4,183, to be precise. I know, some of these are returning after not being available last year - but still, that's an impressive number...
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